What the Heart Knows
by Wylis
Summary: After the attack by Lochlan and Naeve, Sookie wakes to find that reality is not what she thought. Will she choose to believe the evidence of her eyes or the evidence of her heart. Eric/Sookie, Story interupts D
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: I'm still working away on my other fic, the blood slave, but this has been running around in my brain to and so I thought I would put it out there. I'll be working on them both at the same time. I hope you enjoy- also I'm not a psycology major and have no idea about clinical therapy so forgive what I'm sure are large inaccuracies. This first part will be all from Sookie's POV, but we'll begin to change POV's when I update again :) I hope you enjoy!_

_**"Go to you bosom: Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know" William Shakespeare**_

Sookie's POV

I scream out in pain. I tried, I tried so hard to hold out, to believe that Eric was coming, but it's no use. I know now with certainty that I'm going to die in this crumbling house in the middle of no where. Eric isn't coming and I can't hold on much longer.

Lochlan and Neave look at each other from over opposite sides of my body smiling as my blood drips from their mouths. I hear myself mewling in pain. I stopped pleading for my life hours ago, now I just try and prepare myself for the next onslaught. Perhaps this one will be the last, perhaps they will just get on with it, end their games, and finally rip me limb from limb. I tried to ready myself for the next cut, the next bite, the next endless round of agony when suddenly they stand away from me as though waiting for something. I want to focus on what's going on, want to hope that someone has come for me, but I'm to far gone to care, to wrapped up in the prison of my own pain to process anything but the wounds that bleed and hurt and make me want to die.

I hear voices in the background but this small reprieve from their torment allows me only to seep into the nothingness of my own head. Maybe this is my death. Maybe this is how I will end, it is preferable to drown in the darkness than to feel one more moment of pain. I embrace it now closing my eyes and calling out one last time for Eric. This time when I call his name it isn't in a plea for help, it's a farewell.

The first sense that returns to me is hearing. The sounds swirl around my darkness poking at the edges of my brain, encouraging me to swim up from the bottom of wherever I am. At first I try to ignore them, but after a while they are to intrusive to shut out.

"Poor thing, she really did it to herself this time," I hear a female voice say with an air of disbelief in her voice.

"You shouldn't blame her Evie, it's that damn day nurses fault for not making sure that she took all her meds. They aught a fire that idiot before she gets one of our patients killed." I hear a male voice say, disgust evident in his voice.

I want to just seep back down into the black void that has been eveloping me when a realization hits me hard. The voices I heard were actually speaking. When they stop, I don't hear anything else. Suddenly I feel relief flood through me. I must be with vampires then! Eric came for me! I'm alive and I'm safe. I have never felt such happiness in my entire life and I determine that the minute I see him I will tell him in no uncertain terms that I love him! That I'm sorry that I was so cold and so callous the other night. I want to know how he feels about me, I want him to know how I feel about him. I love him, and even if he isn't quite there yet, when I recover I will do everything in my power to make him love me back!

I force my eyes open so that I can tell the vamipres that I'm awake and that I want to see Eric when I'm hit by something completely unexpected, daylight. The confusion and the shock make me choke despite my dry, empty mouth.

Suddenly the bodies belonging to the two voices appear in my sight. The female voice belongs to an elderly lady with short salt and pepper hair and a kind smile, and the male voice belongs to a mountain of a man with short black hair. They both wear stark white scrubs and both look down on me with compassion in their eyes, but I am to frightened to do anything but cower away from them. When I try to move, to get out of the bed and away from them, the pain in my stomach and legs is overwhelming. I cry out, immobile and terrified.

"Susannah dear, everything is okay. It's me nurse Hensley. Everything is alright dear calm down." The lady says everything so kindly but I can't calm down. Where am I? Who are these people? Why can't I hear them? What's going on? I give her a look that must be the epitome of 'deer caught in the headlights' and try to escape from her hand which is trying to smooth the hair at my forehead.

"Who are you? Where am I?" I say settling on what I decide are the two most important questions at the moment. The woman who calls herself nurse Hensley looks at the man and they both shake their heads in what seems like pity. Nurse Hensley turns her head back to me and in her calmest most reassuring voice answers my questions.

"Susannah dear your back in the hospital. Somehow you got out last night and you ended up being attacked by an animal. You're real lucky sweetheart that the guards found you when they did or you might not have made it. Now I know you're in a lot of pain dear but I want you to try and lay back and relax okay. I'm going to let Dr. Breandan know that you're awake so he can come and see you." At the mention of Breandan I feel terrified all over again. Nothing this woman is saying makes any sense to me but I know that name and I know that I must still be being held against my will.

Out of no where I feel a surge of adrenaline shoot through me and I begin to struggle to get out of the bed, completely ignoring the pain in my body.

Without needing another moment the big man takes hold of both my arms and forces me back onto the bed. I begin to scream and scream and struggle against him. I can feel some of the stitches in my mid section ripping with the force of my struggle but I don't care. I have to get out of here! The faries are here and they will hurt me.

Suddenly I feel a sharp stab in my arm and I see the woman, nurse Hensley, holiding a needle, the point of which is now firmly in the skin of my arm. She depresses the end and I feel the liquid going in. My bodies response to whatever she gave me is instantaneous. Suddenly I feel calm, drunk almost, and unable to fight. I try to keep the cotton feeling from descending on my brain but it's no use. My arms and legs are already useless and though my brain doesn't fully shut down it becomes nothing more than dead weight in my head.

I lay there as the big man straps my arms and legs into restraints that are positioned at the head and foot of the bed, and then he leaves. The woman, nurse Hensley remains though, stroking my hair and crooning softly to me.

Jesus Christ Shepard of Judea what is going on? Where am I? Where is Eric? Why isn't he here? Oh God!

I seem to float away for what feels like hours. Never actually loosing conciousness but never able to grasp at a single coherant thought either. When the medication finally wears off a bit I feel my wits slowly returning to me. I look around the room and find that the sun has gotten low in the sky but has not set and that the woman who called herself Nurse Hensley has disapeared. A little more time goes by and I see another woman poke her head into my room. She is younger with long hair pulled back into a pony tail and the same stark white scrubs on. She notices that I'm awake and darts away without saying a word to me.

Several more minutes pass and I hear someone coming again. This time when I look up I see a beautiful man in this mid thirties, with long dark hair pulled back into a pony tail and bright almost emerald colored eyes. His expression is remote and disaproving and I find myself more scared of him than I have been of anything else since I first opened my eyes here. I look him over and see that he's wearing a white doctors coat over a dress shirt and a pair of slacks and he has a nametag on the doctor's coat: Doctor John Breandan.


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer: I own nothing..._

I feel myself trying to cower away from Breandan but to no avail. I am strapped tight to the bed and completely helpless. Breandan looks down at me coldly.

"Susannah, you're awake again. Good. How do you feel?" The words he speaks convey concern, but the tone behind them is anything but.

"Where am I? Are you Niall's enemy Breandan? Why are you holding me like this?" It comes out in a rushed flurry and I can't believe that he's understood any of it. But clearly he did. He raises a brow and lets out a put upon sigh.

"We were making so much progress Susannah, and now it seems we will have to start all over again." I look at him incredulously.

"My name is not Susannah, it's Sookie, Sookie Stackhouse and you better be prepared for the fight of your life when the sun sets! Eric will tear you limb from limb for this." The man looks at me again and I see only exasperation behind his eyes. Before he can answer me though another man enters the room. I rear back in terror again, and this time I know exactly who he is and I know that I should be terrified. He's almost the spitting image of Jason and that can only mean one thing! Sure enough I look down at the nametag on his coat and it reads Dr. Matthew Dermot.

"Dr." Dermot puts a gentle hand on "Dr." Breandan and asks him quietly to leave. I feel myself letting go again, getting ready to scream and try to pull uselessly against the restraints when Dermot speaks to me softly.

"Susannah, you have nothing to fear from me. It seems your ordeal last night has thrown you back into the depths of your psychosis. Please, no one here will hurt you, we only want to help you." He says it so calmly but I'm not fooled. Somehow I'm still with the fairies. For some reason they've decided to play mind games with me instead of just outright killing me. I have no idea what's going on but I won't be fooled.

"Save it! I know who you are. Are you holding me for ransom? Why didn't you just let Lochlan and Naeve kill me?" Dermot smiles down at me, but the smile isn't malicous or threatning, it's kind and compassionate.

"Who are Lochlan and Naeve, Susannah?" He asks me quietly. I laugh in his face.

"You know exactly who they are, they're faires just like you and you're all trying to kill me." Again Dermot smiles kindly at me.

"Why would we want to kill you?" He asks calmly.

"You know why! You think I'm an abomination, you think that faries and humans should never have interbred." Dermot shakes his head sadly at me and as he does I see something that makes my blood run absolutely cold. His ears. They're shaped like mine, not like a fairies. Without my mind even getting a say my mouth opens up, "oh my God, what happened to your ears?" Once I say it I clamp my mouth shut, my mind taking control again. Dermot laughs softly for a moment and then turns kind eyes back on me.

"I don't understand what you're asking me Susannah. My ears are perfectly normal just like yours." What kind of game are they playing with me? I search around trying to find anything in the room to focus on, to calm myself, but there isn't a single thing. It's just a stark white hospital room and other than the bed I'm in there is a sink, and an open door that looks like it leads into a bathroom. Finding nothing to keep my eyes on they return again to Brendan's ears.

"You're a fairy! You ears are suppposed to be pointed?" I say it softly, it dawning on me for the first time that they clearly, clearly are not. Claude had his ears surgically altered, but if you knew what to look for it was clear that they had been changed. Dermot's ears look exactly like a human's with not a hint that they have ever been tampered with.

"Susannah, I'm so sorry. Dr. Breandan was right, you were making such wonderful progress, I'm distressed to see you like this. May I sit?" I know that he doesn't need my permission but I'm so confused right now I just nod dumbly, my good southern manners taking over where my brain has just stopped. I try to focus very hard but I can still feel the medication working it's way through my system and I'm not one hundred percent in control of my faculities just yet. Dermot pulls a straight back chair up beside my bed and sits down.

"Maybe we should start with the easy things first. You are in a mental hospital. You've been here for just over two years. Last night you managed to find a way out and into the woods that surround the hospital and as you were trying to escape you were attacked by a wild animal, probably a wolf or some other kind of wild dog. The orderlies here found you not long after you escaped and thank God. If you had been out there much longer you would have bled to death." My head may be swimming but I know enough to know that's bull and I laugh in his face.

"You can try to lie to me all you want Dermot, but I don't believe you. If you intend to kill me you should just do it, otherwise heaven help you when Eric gets here!" I say to him, my eyes narrowing with threat when I say Eric's name. Dermot's only change in facial expression is to one of complete pity.

"This is worse than I thought," he mumbles softly. Then he looks up at me. "Your Eric is dead Susannah?" He says quietly. No! I don't believe it! I don't understand what game they're playing with me, but it's starting to wear on me.

"What on earth do you mean? Eric is not dead!" Again Dermot looks on me with utter pity.

"Oh Susannah," he says his voice filled with sorrow. Suddenly I just lose it and start screaming at him.

"Stop calling me that! My name is not Susannah, it's Sookie, Sookie Stackhouse and I know who you are Dermot, and I'm not falling for any of this! When Eric gets here your dead!" I yell for all I'm worth, but I'm still weak from what Lochlan and Naeve have done to me and still fuzzy from whatever drugs they gave me, and my tantrum is quickly exhausted. I lay there panting and watch as Dermot gives me a few moments to recover myself before speaking.

"Your name isn't Sookie. It's Susannah Stackhouse Svenson. You've been here with us in this instistution for two years. Your Grandmother Adele Stackhouse had you committed shortly after the death of your husband Eric Svenson." I look at him with wide disbeliving eyes. This is insane!

"I don't believe you, not for a second!" I say. Oh god, oh god, oh god what's going on! Dermot looks at me to make sure that I'm not going to devolve into another screaming, struggling fit and then he continues.

"Does any of that ring any bells for you Susannah?" He asks me gently. I just shake my head at him, unable to form any words. "You loved your husband very much and when he was killed you couldn't handle it. You began to make up stories to comfort yourself, and eventually you began to believe them." I'm still shaking my head, but Dermot continues on with his rediculous story anyway. "You invented an entirely alternate reality for yourself where you can read minds, where all sorts of mythical creatures like vampires and werewolves and fairies exsist, and you made your husband a vampire, an ancient and strong vampire who will live forever and thereby never leave you. You even gave him a new name to go with his new invincible persona: Eric Northman. You gave yourself a new name to: Sookie, something unique to match the unique powers you posses in this alternate reality. But these are all just dreams Susannah. When you're grandmother and others tried to help you, you refused to believe them. Your Gran had no choice but to commit you to our care.

We've been working together since you came here and in the last months you were starting to make real progress, starting to accept the truth. I know you suffered a great truama last night, and another shock again today, but I'm going to help you. We're going to get you healthy again okay. You're safe here and we have all the time in the world!" With that Dermot gets up out of his seat and tells me that I should sleep.

"Wait!" I call after him. He turns around and looks at me, startled that I'm talking to him willingly. "How on earth do you imagine you can explain your resemblance to my brother?" I ask smiling at my own cleverness. Dermot isn't suprised by my question but he also betrays no sign of deceit either when he answers me.

"Susannah, you're brother died in the same accident that killed your parents when he was twelve. I don't think there is any way to know if I resemble him or not, but it isn't uncommon for patients with your sickness to incorporate people from real life into their delusions." He looks down and shakes his head in saddness. "I'm sorry Susannah, I wish I had happier answers for you, but all I have is the truth." With that he leaves me alone.

Despite Dermot's advice I lay in the bed awake for many hours, looking out into the night beyond the window and waiting for Eric to come. Nothing happens. After a long time I reach out through our bond trying to feel him, trying to call him to me. My head starts to swim and my heart starts to ache in pain when I realize that I don't feel anything. I don't feel his emotions, I don't feel his life force, it's as if... as if he's dead!

I turn my head from the window into the pillow and begin to cry. Oh my God! "Eric!" I sob out as I weep and weep. I don't understand what's happening to me. First I was being tortured by those evil fairies and then I wake up here and my telepathy is gone, Eric is nowhere to be found and I can't feel him, and Dermot and Breandan are doctors and not fairies! What is happening? Is this some sort of trick they're playing on me? But why? Why play mind games with me when they could have just let Lochlan and Naeve kill me? I don't understand. Then as my mind clears completely for the first time in hours a horrible thought crosses my mind.

What if Dermot was right? What if I'm insane. Not crazy Sookie insane, but really and truly insane. What if all of it was a delusion and this is reality?


	3. Chapter 3

_Disclaimer: I own nothing..._

Eventually through the haze of confusion and worry exhaustion finally claims me and I fall aleep. I know the second my eyes open that I am dreaming but I'm so happy to be out of the 'hospital' that I don't even care that it's just a dream.

It's night time and I'm sitting in the swing on my porch, a glass of sweet tea in my hand. Just as I'm lifting the glass to my mouth I see a figure emerging from the tree line that surrounds the front yard. I feel my hand begin to tremble with fear, but just as I'm about to get up and run inside I see who it is. Standing just were the flood lights meet the darkness is the most welcome sight in the world. I drop the glass careless of where it lands and run down the steps as fast as my legs will take me.

When he sees me he too hurries and we meet somewhere in the middle. I fling my arms around him and hold him tight to me as though I'm drowning and he is my life preserver.

"Eric!" I cry out he lifts me clear off the ground and into his embrace. I squeeze his neck tightly and burry my face in his long hair breathing him in and feeling safe for the first time in days.

"You're alive! Thank god you're alive!" He says over and over again into my cheek as he nuzzles his face to mine and holds me as though he won't ever let me go! I nod my head unable to say anything else as I hold on to him and try with all my might to meld into him so that we can't ever be parted again. After a few minutes Eric pulls back just enough to see my face and begins to pepper it with soft kisses.

"Lover you must listen to me, I don't know how much time we have." He says, his eyes turning serious. I look at him utterly confused.

"I don't understand I thought this was a dream?" I say, feeling for the millionth time since I woke up in the hospital as though I have no idea which way is up and which way is down. Eric smiles at me gently a look of utter devotion crossing his face.

"This is a dream lover, but it's not a fantasy, and I am not a figment of your unconcious. I am really here." I still don't understand and I know he sees the questions on my face. "Lover I have been searching for you for two nights, Niall, Pam, Bill, and I all. We followed you to the farmhouse where Lochlan and Naeve where holding you, but we arrived to late, they had been warned of our coming and fled with you. Since then I have been unable to feel you through our bond, and Niall has been unable to use his magic to locate you. I...I thought you were dead. Amelia created this spell as a last resort" I look at him as though he's grown two heads, but I cling to his every word. I am not crazy! This is real, Eric is real, he's looking for me, he hasn't abandoned me!

"Oh Eric!" I kiss him deep and long and when our lips part Eric begs me to tell him anything I can about where I am and who is holding me. I tell him everything, which I realize when I start to speak is not much of anything at all, nothing useful anyway. Eric listens to it all, commiting to memory everything I'm saying. When it's done he puts my feet back on the ground and brings his hands to cup my face.

"Sookie listen to me, I am coming for you. I will find you. Do whatever you must to stay alive, but I am coming!" I nod my head as best I can and feel my eyes filling with tears. I don't want to wake up, I don't want to lose him.

"Eric, I'm sorry about the things I said to you the last time we saw each other. I was scared, and angry and...I love you! I want you to know that, I love you!" I see a deep, strong emotion cross Eric's face and for a moment I expect that he will burry it as he almost always does and put his confident mask back into place, but he does not. I see the expresion on his face transform into one of worry, and fear, but most of all of love.

"I love you as well Sookie. It was what I wanted to tell you that night." He says it all so quietly that I almost think I haven't heard it, but I know I have. He pulls my face to his and kisses me deeply, his hands leaving my cheeks and wrapping around my waste, stroping me to him. I kiss him back with everything I have and we only break apart when I need to breath. "When this is over, when I find you, there will be no more pretenses and no more masks between us Sookie! You will be mine as I am already yours." I nod my head emphatically and try my best to hold on to him, but I can feel already the pull of conciousness calling me away.

"Eric I'm waking!" I cry out trying desperately to keep hold of him. Eric does not try to fight what he must know to be inevitable, instead he looks deeply into my eyes, his burning with passion and conviction, "I am coming for you Sookie."

With that I feel the dream end and my eyes open. The tears come fast and hard when I see that I am back in the hospital still restrained to the bed. The sun is just coming up over the horizon and I know wherever he is my vampire may be going to his rest, but he is coming for me.

With that knowledge I try to calm myself and deal with the situation at hand. It has been almost twenty-four hours since the woman who called herself Nurse Hensley gave me the injection and my mind seems to be fully mine again. I try to figure out as much as I can about where I am. So far the only people I have seen are the two nurses, the orderly, and Dermot and Breandan. So far no one has hurt me and no one has tried to kill me. Hopefully that means that they must want something from me, something they feel the need to keep me alive to get. I reach out with my mind trying to ascertain who else might be around, but I am again, confusingly met with silence. It's as if no one is here but me. The thought disturbs me greatly but is not nearly as bad as the shock I get when it's proven wrong.

The other "nurse", the one who looked in on me yesterday but said nothing comes in now. Again I try to read her, but get nothing. It isn't the nothing that I get from shifters and weres, which is more like a scramble of almost indecipherable thoughts, and it isn't the nothinglike void that I get off vampires. It's litterally nothing. Even fairies, whose magical resonance I can sense even though they're thoughts are hidden from me, give off something. This is plain nothing, I am the only one in my head.

"How are you feeling this morning Susannah?" She asks me. I feel my face flushing with anger once more, but try not to let it get away with itself.

"My name is Sookie," I say to her. I don't know why I keep saying that to everyone, they'll call me what they want it doesn't change the fact that I know I'm Sookie Stackhouse. The nurse frowns a little bit at my tone but just shrugs off my beligerance.

"Susannah, I'm want to untie you so that you can eat breakfast. Are you going to make a fuss or are you going to cooperate?" She asks me, her tone condecending this time, as though explaining things to a slow child. When she says the word breakfast though, I can litterally feel my stomach aching. I don't remember when the last time I had anything even remotely resembling food was, and so I nod at her. She undoes my restraints and helps me sit. Again I feel the pain in my abdomen. I haven't looked yet, but I don't really want to know what I will find there. The nurse places a tray infront of me and leaves me to eat.

The food is probably horrible but I couldn't care less, it tastes heavenly after being so empty for so long. I eat everything down in a few short gobbles and drink down the orange juice she brought me in a single gulp. Just as I am finishing the nurse returns with a cup of water and a little cup of pills.

"Susannah, it's time for your medication." When I hear this I begin to feel myself shake. Oh God, what are they trying to give me. I see the orderly behind the nurse and a realization hits me. If I don't take them willingly than they will hold me down and force me. I swallow hard, my throat becoming dry. But almost instantly I realize what I have to do. Eric said to do whatever I have to stay alive. So I nod at the nurse and throw back the pills and the water.

Whatever they gave me does not effect me in the same way that the injection yesterday did. In fact besides feeling a little cheerier as the next hour progresses, I feel almost nothing else. After about an hour and half the orderly comes back with an empty wheel chair.

"Susannah, I'm here to take you to your daily appointment with Dr. Dermot. Do you need any help?" The orderly asks. I feel my heart start to race and my breathing quicken, my fear gripping me almost completely. The orderly takes my silence as acceptance of his offer and gently helps me into the wheel chair. I'm taken out of the room for the first time and to my utter shock I see that the hospital is teaming with people. The whole ward is filled with patients, and doctors and nurses bussle in and out of rooms, charts or medication in hand.

My heart litterally stops beating when I realize how many people are around me and that I cannot hear one of them. How is this possible? Is the medication they're giving me somehow blocking my telepathy? I settle on this as the obvious answer, but again I feel a cold creeping fear tapping at the back of my head, what if the medication is just medication? What if I'm not really telepathic?


	4. Chapter 4

_Disclaimer: I own nothing..._

I'm taken past the halls and halls of patients rooms and into a much quieter area of the hospital. The orderly stops at a door that has the words: Dr. Matthew Dermot, on them, and knocks.

"Enter," Dermot says softly. The orderly wheels me in. He takes one of the guest chairs in front of Dermot's desk and places it against the wall and then wheels my chair into it's place. Dermot smiles at the orderly and thanks him, and the orderly leaves.

"Hello Susannah, how was your evening. Did you sleep well?" I try as best as I can to be on my guard but whatever it is that they gave me makes me feel quite happy and content. I nod my head slowly, but don't say anything.

"I'm glad. I thought today that we might talk about your husband. When you first came to us you and I talked about him a great deal and I thought we might begin there again. Why don't you tell me what you remember about him?" He asks in a soft, non-threatening voice.

"You mean other than the fact that he's a vampire?" I say sarcastically trying to keep my head about me despite the happy pill I've apparently been given. Dermot smiles kindly.

"We have had several conversations very similar to this one. Why don't you tell me what you remember and I'll try my best to help you to the truth." He says. I stare at him as coldly as I can. I won't swallow his lies, he can say whatever he wants. "Why don't we start with the first time you met?"

"Fine. We met at Fangtasia, it's the vampire bar that Eric owns in Shreveport. I went there with another vampire named Bill Compton to try and find a man who was killing woman who had slept with vampires." I say, emphasizing the word vampire over and over again. Dermot looks at me and I see suprise in his eyes. He looks down at file that is sitting open on this desk, reads for a moment, and then nods.

"This is very interesting. You're version of events is exactly as you described it to me when we first talked about this two years ago. I didn't realize how entrenched this alternate reality of yours truly is." He sighs deeply and looks me straight in the eye. "I'm sorry Susannah, maybe this is my fault, maybe I thought we were making progress when in reality we weren't." He sighs again and then tells me the "truth".

"In reality you did meet your husband at a bar, a place called Fantasia in Shreveport. It's was owned by him and his sister, I believe that you're sister-in-law Pamela Svenson still owns it. You are right, you were brought there by your boyfriend at the time Bill Compton. But Susannah, neither Bill nor Eric are vampires, Fantasia is just a normal bar." He sees the look of disbelief in my eyes, and then does something that makes me litterally feel like fainting. He types for a moment on his laptop and then turns the screen so that I can see. He's pulled up a website, and there plain as the nose on my face is a picture of Fangtasia, only it doesn't say Fangtasia, it says Fantasia, and there is a picture of Pam behind the bar, in a pretty twin set with sunlight streaming in from the windows that have never existed, and lighting her hair.

I feel my throat start to get tight and my eyes start to water. Oh God! What if it's true? I'm insane! I look at Dr. Dermot and see his gentle expression. He has done nothing to hurt me since I woke up here yesterday. No one has. And though I have no memory of the life he wants me to believe that I've had, that could easily be explained away by the fact that I'm crazy and have been living in a delusional world for the last two years. Suddenly without my even thinking about it the question falls from my lips.

"How did Eric die?" I can't believe that I've said it, that I've allowed myself for even a second to be taken in by this charade, but I have. Dr. Dermot looks at me and I see compassion in his eyes and hope.

"He was killed in a car accident. Tragic but not supernatural. He was coming home from the bar late one night, he was tired, he fell asleep at the wheel and lost control of the car." I feel the tears in my eyes and Dr. Dermot smiles kindly again at me. "I'm sorry dear, I know how hard this must be for you to hear, but I am proud of you for hearing it and not retreating into fantasies." I nod my head. I don't know what to believe. The idea of Eric being that fragile, that breakable, my mind completely rebels against it, and yet, when I try to reach out with the bond there is nothing.

No, Eric told me last night in my dream that he couldn't feel me either, NO! This is not happening!

"Susannah, try to remember, why don't you tell me about your home. You're home in Shreveport, the home you shared with Eric?" His voice is still gentle and kind, but I'm not paying attention to what he is saying anymore. Instead the thoughts are swirling in my head. Eric is dead, Eric is human and dead, and I am alive and insane. With everything I am I don't want to believe this, but then don't they always say that truly insane people don't think they're insane. Tears prick at my eyes and begin to fall without my consent.

Dr. Dermot sees this and stops speaking. He gets up and comes round the desk leaning down and patting me on the arm in a fatherly way,

"Maybe we should stop for now. This is a lot for you to take in at once. I'll have the orderly bring you back to your room, or if you want you could go to the recreation room for a bit?" He asks me. I just shake my head and cry.

"No, I...I want to go back to my room." I say. I try to get a hold of myself but the best I can manage is to cry silently. A few moments later an orderly appears and I'm being wheeled back to my room.

Once there the orderly helps me back into bed, and I look out the window willing night to come and Eric to find me. He has to be coming! He has to be out there! I say it to myself over and over again, but in the back of my head I begin to hear that voice that says that no one is coming. It only makes me cry harder.

I will sleep to take me over and over again, and finally in the small hours of the morning I fall into an exhausted, fitful sleep, but I do not dream. I don't dream of Eric and I don't dream of anything else. When conciousness tugs at me again I squeeze my eyes shut praying that when I open them I will be back at my farmhouse, in my own bed, with my very own viking. But wish, and hope as I do, when I open them there is only the hospital room and the cold light of day.


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N: Thanks so much to everyone who's reviewed, put this story on alert, and in their farvortites. Okay so no more jerking around, here is what's really going on! I hope you enjoy! :)_

_Disclaimer: I own nothing..._

Breandan's POV

I make my way through the camp, nodding to my followers as I go by. We will be moving again tonight, attempting to engage smaller pockets of Niall's forces, and stay away from the main group of fighters.

As the warriors following me begin to pack their things and ready themselves I head back to my tent. Inside I find Dermot knealing over the girl again. She has been with us for two days now and still nothing. I am beginning to grow impatient.

"Well?" I bark out to him, startling him from his concentration. Dermot looks up at me with eyes that for the moment seem quite lucid.

"So far I have not been able to pull anything useful from her, but I believe she is beginning to accept. I only need a little more time and I am certain I can get something worthwhile." Dermot assures me. I feel my anger rising. I walk over to him and pull him up by his shirt collar.

"You had better find something soon, or I will let Lochlan and Naeve eat her and be done. I'm not carting around this useless sack of flesh for much longer. Don't think that I don't know you're being soft with her because she's your niece. And don't forget, half breed, I don't need even half a reason to through you to the mob with her." Dermot shivers visably at my threat and I find myself smiling. It is good he remembers his place.

"Just a little while longer." He says, trying to conceal the tremor in his voice. I nod my head and give him a withering look.

"You have one more night, and then I let them kill her." I release Dermot, throwing him back just a little and causing him to loose his balance and fall onto the little cot where the girl is resting. Looking down on her I'm not convinced that she'll make it more than another night or two. The wounds Lochlan and Naeve inflicted are gruesome, even to my battle hardened eyes. She has lost a great deal of blood from them and though they have mostly scabbed over they will no doubt become infected soon if they are not already. These injuries coupled with the damage Dermot is no doubt doing to the girl's psychie all but ensure that there will be nothing worth saving when he is done.

Still for all my posturing and threatening him, I reluctantly admit that I need his plan to work. I misjudged the situation greatly when I gave Lochlan and his sister the go ahead to take her. My only thought at the time was that she was Niall's half breed spawn and that taking her, killing her would hurt him. I knew she was connected in some way to the Viking as well, but he is a vampire! When has a vampire ever cared about a human? They do not feel, they do not care, and they most certainly do not love. Yet it appears that this one has proved me wrong on all counts, and unless Dermot's game pays off he will bring down the wrath of all of his gods on me to get the girl back.

So I have let Dermot cast his spell and take the unconcious telepath deep within her own mind. He has created a world for her in which she has lost everything of value. Her telepathy never was, her great protector is a mere human and dead, and she is insane. It was quite clever really. Allow her to believe that everything she knows is not, and then weedle information out of her as you attempt to "correct" her delusional inaccuracies.

Sitll if she was in any condition for it I would have gone for straight torture. I don't have days and days to wait. Naill and the Viking have combined forces, and if matters were not already bad enough it seems the girl has made some other powerful vampire friends. The king of Nevada, Louisanna, and Arkansas has added his fighters to the Northman's and Niall's and now they are all baring down on my head.

The girl must give up something crucial or my miscalculation will cost me this war. I only need an address, Northman's daytime resting place, even that of his childs. Anything so that I can strike at his heart, defeat him. If I can get the game back down to Niall and I, I am sure I will triumph, but Niall and the vampire armies of three states, I can never win with those odds.

I sit in the lone chair in my tent and watch Dermot as he again invades the girl's mind. She whimpers softly on the bed, either from mental of physical pain, or both. I have joined him in this endevor once, the first night we tried it, but I do not have the patience for it. The subtelties are much better left to him and the brute force to me.

A camp guard enters the tent at that moment, baring a blood stained young fairy with him. He is covered in gore and the clothes he is wearing are torn and ragged. More bad news it appears.

"Report." I command him brusquely.

"My prince thirty more of our number are dead. This one came to report the news." The guard says. I look at the boy and gesture for him to tell me what has happened.

"My Prince, we received word to move on tonight, but as we were preparing to leave we were ambushed. Our party was captured by the Viking and the royal guard of Louisianna. They were looking for the girl. When he found that she was not amongst us the viking gave the order to kill everyone." He looks down as though he cannot bare to remember the things he has seen tonight.

"Did any others survive?" I ask him feeling my anger rise in me again.

"Only myself and two others, Prince." He says the last quietly, afraid, as he should be.

"And the other survivors?" I ask allowing my voice to run as cold as my blood is becoming. The boy begins to tremble.

"The Viking ordered them taken and interrogated. It was only luck that I managed to escape the massacre." At that moment my rage is unbound, I let out and animalistic roar, and spring up taking the chair I was sitting in and flinging it across the tent. If possible I am made even agrier by the fact that it only falls to the ground at the edge of the tent. With no walls there is nothing for it to shatter on. I turn to the guard eyes blazing.

"Give the word, we move now!" I say. The guard takes the boy and leaves. I stalk over to Dermot once again. He is deep in concetration, attempting to get to the girl and so I bend down and whisper in his ear, all the anger and menace I have dripping out.

"Find me something!" I command him and then turn to leave. The guards outside my door will pack the tent and assist Dermot with moving the girl. Right now I must be away from her before I tear her limb from limb myself!

I approach one of my Captains just as we are moving out and pull him aside.

"Take a small group of fighters. Burn down Fangtasia! Make sure as many die as possible, humans and vampires. We shall see just how much the girl is worth to him!"


	6. Chapter 6

_Disclaimer: I own nothing..._

Eric's POV

I return to Sookie's farmhouse from the club. Killing Breandan's faries tonight took the edge off my blood lust but in the end I am still as frustrated as ever. Pam is still interrogating the fairies we captured but no doubt they will give us nothing useful. By the time we have one location out of them Brendan will have moved Sookie to another.

I enter the house, the two fairy guards at the front door bowing to me as I cross the threshold. The house itself is bussling with vampires and Niall's fairies. I find Niall at Sookie's kitchen table with a map spread out before him. It was decided on the first night, when Breandan and his band elluded us at the farmhouse in Arkansas, that we would make Sookie's house base camp. Control of the portal in her woods is imperative so that we can move easily between places and realms. Niall looks up from his map as I enter the kitchen.

"No luck I take it?" He says cooly. I find myself barely able to hold on to my control. Our alliance is an uneasy one, and one that will end when Sookie is found. I find that my ability to tolerate him is severly diminshed not by his delectable fairy scent, but by the knowlege that his own stupidty has caused this disaster. If he had just stayed away from Sookie as his son had, she would be here with me now, not held prisoner by his enemies.

I have told NIall about the dream that Sookie and I shared and he is every bit as concerened as I am. What she described is completely incongruous. Niall believes that either Breandan or Dermot has placed her under a spell. Which means that everything she told me is of absolutely no value. We do not know where she is and neither does she. More terrifying though is the fact that other than the truth that she lives, we have no idea what physical state she is in. Niall did not need to confirm for me that after even a few hours with Lochlan and Naeve the chances of her being in good health are slim to none.

As I take a seat at the table next to him, Thalia brings me a True Blood. I hate this swill and it's taste is made even worse by the fact that such a delectable meal is sitting just across the table from me. But I down the vile substance anyway. I have given the vampires under my command strict orders that there are to be no...incidents, and therefore I must lead by example. Niall's masking spray is helping with the worst of it, but still. One need not smell the food to know how good it is!

As I nurse my blood, I try to distract myself from thoughts of ending Niall's worthless existance by thinking of Sookie. It's a dangerous path to let my mind wander on. Even thinking of her with those sadistic, zenophobic zealots makes my frigid body boil with anger, so instead I think of our dream.

I try desperately to both calm myself and strengthen my resolve by playing over and over the conversation we had. She loves me. No words in any language I know can express the joy I felt at her words then, or the pain they bring me now. I have to get her back. I will not let Breandan and his lot kill her. I have waited so long, and fought so hard for her love. If I can only win just this one battle more she will be mine. I know now that I will never let her out of my sight again.

Suddenly, I feel my anger welling up at Sookie too. If only she had not been so stubborn, so determined to keep us both at arms length that night. If only she had agreed to come to Shreveport with me, she would be safe now.

My musings are getting me nothing but keyed up. I turn my thoughts back to the present. I will only weaken myself if I give in to my fear and grief. Sookie lives, I will get her back if I have to kill every fairy that exists to get to her, and when I do I will bring her to my side and never let her leave it! Niall and I both look up at the same time as Amelia enters the kitchen, a bunch of herbs in her hands.

"Are you almost ready, witch?" I ask her. Amelia gives me a tired grimace but nods her head. She stands at the counter beginning to grind the herbs she has dried with a pecil and mortor. I know that she is beside herself. Niall's foolishness has cost more people more pain than just Sookie and I. Amelia's lover Dawson lays near death at Dr. Ludwig's hospital, and I find myself again impressed by this human who has stood by my bonded when others would have abandoned her like rats escaping a sinking ship. Her wards kept us all alive during the takeover by Nevada, and now she is preparing yet another spell to allow me to share a dream with Sookie.

Spells such as these seem to require a great deal of magic and a great deal of energy, and it is hard for Amelia to do them on her own, but we have no time to plead with her mentor to come back and so she has willingly taken on the physical burden herself.

"Ten more minutes and I should be ready to begin." Amelia calls out to Niall and I. We both nod our heads though she can't see us from her place at the counter.

Almost exactly ten minutes later Amelia is finished with her preperation and the three of us head upstairs to her room. I sit in the center of the chalk circle that Amelia has drawn and try to calm myself, open myself, as she lights the bowl of ground herbs on fire flooding the room with the smell of their incense and the sticky sweet aroma of magic. Amelia begins to chant, and I close my eyes and allow my consciousness to be taken away.

When I open my eyes again I am downstairs, in Sookie's bedroom. But the house is no longer filled with Nialls' fae or my vampires. There is only one other person in the house, my bonded who is resting gently beside me.

I allow myself a moment of indulgence to feel both relief that she is still alive, and desire at the way the sheet has molded itself to her otherwise unclothed form. She is so exquisite. So entirely betwitching, she has been mine and when I find her she will be mine again.

I run my fingertips over her bare shoulder and hear her sigh of pleasure as she comes awake. She turns around, but when she sees me she does not smile. Instead she bursts into tears and throws her arms around me. Without even a thought I gather her up into my arms and hold her close. Petting her hair and making wordless soothing noises.

"Lover, what is wrong? Are you alright? Are they hurting you?" I squeeze her gently and try to control my anger at the thought of what they may have done to her. When she pulls away just enough to look at me though I become more frightened than I have ever been. She is slipping away from me.

"I'm so confused." She sobs out hopelessly. "When I'm here with you I want so badly to believe that everything I remember is true, but I know this is just a dream. When I wake up reality will still be reality. I'm not a telepathy or a fairy, and you're not a vampire. You're dead and I'm insane." Her voice breaks on the last word and she begins to sob again. I take her head in my hands and force her to look at me.

"Lover, Lover you must listen to me. You are not insane and I am not dead. But you may very soon be if I cannot find you. I have told Niall everything about our last dream and he is convinced that Breandan has you under some kind of spell. You must try to break free of it. Do you understand me. You must break free. Breandan may not be strong, and his warriors may not be worth fighting, but he is good at getting away. If I am to have a chance at finding you, you must try to conqueror the spell and reach out to me through the bond. All I need is a few seconds lover. If I can feel you for even a few seconds I will be able to track you. Help me. Do not give up on us, and do NOT believe what you are being told."

Sookie looks up at me and I see such confusion and such heartache in her eyes. What are they doing to her? Before I can ask her anything more she blindsides me with a question.

"Eric, what's your last name?" I must be looking at her as though she has two heads. Of what significance can my last name be? She gestures to me to answer her.

"You know my last name Sookie, Northman." She frowns at me and I see frustration in her eyes.

"No Northman is what you are not your name. It's a joke of sorts like naming your bar Fangtasia. I mean what's your real last name?" I feel my eyebrows kniting together. Who knows how much time we have before she wakes, why is she asking me this? Still it seems to matter to her greatly and so I answer.

"We didn't have last names in the way that you do now Lover. You were called the son or the daughter of who ever your father was. My father's name was Sven, so I was Eric son of Sven." She actually looks as though I've slapped her.

"Svenson," She whispers quietly to herself, more tears coursing down her face.

"True it isn't the kind of last name that strikes fear into the hearts of many, but it's not all that bad!" I chuckle trying to cheer her. "Northman is a great deal better though don't you think?" I try to take her head in my hands again and lay it back against my shoulder but just as I do I feel her being pulled away from me.

"Eric I'm waking." She says quietly just before the dream ends.


	7. Chapter 7

_A/N: Thank you to everyone who's reviewed, put this story on alert, and in their favorites. It really kept me writing. I was looking at all my stories and I realized that my Sookie seems to do a lot of sitting back and getting rescued, which is so not right. So in remedy, here's Sookie kicking a little ass, I hope you enjoy ;)_

_Disclaimer: I own nothing..._

Sookie's POV

When I come back to conciousness I know without even opening my eyes that I am in the mental institution. I feel tears begin to course down my cheeks and try to stop them but it's of no use. It's all true. I am insane, and Eric, my love, my husband is dead. The dream was the final peice I had been missing.

In all my deluded memories I don't ever recall Eric telling me what his real last name was. And yet when I asked him in my dream he said the same name the doctors have been saying these past days. It can only be my mind finally accepting the truth, finally allowing me to realize that these memories are in fact nothing more than a delusion and that none of it ever happened.

I lay on the bed and sob for what seems like hours before the nurse comes with my breakfast. This time I accept her help without question and try to make peace with the truth. If I want to get better, to leave this place and return to my life, than I have to. All morning I go through the routines of this place like a zombie. Eating, bathing, spending time with the other patients in the recreation room. I try to be as good and as accommodating as I can.

After lunch the orderly wheels me back into Dr. Dermot's office for my daily therapy session. When we enter Dr. Dermot smiles kindly at me as always and asks how my night was and if I am feeling good today. I try to smile and answer him politely.

"Well Susannah, you seem more at peace today" He says softly. I nod at him.

"I had a dream last night. I realize now that you've been right. I'm sorry for the problems I've caused." I say meekly. Dr. Dermot smiles at me and I see that he is pleased.

"This is wonderful Susannah! I'm very proud of you. It takes great strength to accept the truth as you have done. Why don't we get on with our session today and see if we can make even more progress, shall we?" I nod again and give him a weak smile in return.

"Yesterday I asked you about the home you shared with your husband. Do you remember it?" I try to think. I really don't remember anything about the life I've lived. It's terrifying to understand for the first time that what I remember is a dellusion and that I don't know what reality should be. I shake my head.

"Do you mean my home, my home in Bon Temps?" I ask him. He shakes his head, his kind eyes showing his patience.

"No Susannah, that was the home you lived in with your grandmother, before you were married. I'm glad that you remember it. This is very good as well. I mean your home with Eric in Shreveport. Can you remember anything about it. What neighborhood it was in perhaps? What street you lived on?" I don't know how such questions are supposed to help me, but I try hard to remember anything I can. All I can come up with are the wrong memoires that my mind has created. Yet, even in those I don't know anything about a house in Shreveport. I wonder if he means Eric's home, but I have never been to Eric's home, I don't even know where it is. I shake my head and shrug my shoulders helplessly.

"I'm sorry I don't remember it." I say softly. Dermot gives me a suprised look.

"You don't remember anything about it?" He asks. His voice seems unnecessarily concerned by this.

"No, I don't. Even in my false memories, I've never been to Eric's house."

"What about your sister-in-law Pamela. Do you remember anything about her home? Maybe her address?" I look at him and I'm sure the question is in my eyes. Dr. Dermot smiles again.

"It's okay Susannah, just try. Anything you can remember, even the smallest details will help you in your recovery." I nod slowly. I remember Pam's house just fine. If it's the same in real life as in my delusions than I've even been there. I smile happily at finally being able to tell him something.

"Yes, I remember Pam's house!" I say excitedly, but just as I'm about to tell him I look up at Dr. Dermot. He is sitting almost on the edge of his chair, and I see on his face an eagerness for the answer that is completely without reason. It makes me stop. Why is this so important to him? What will my remembering an address do to help me get better?

Suddenly I remember the words Eric spoke to me in my dream last night. The dream I have been so sure all day was nothing more than a figment of my sickness. I am under a spell. I feel my stomach clenching as I try to decide what to do.

The evidence of my eyes is undeniable. I have no telepathy, Dr. Dermot is clearly human, Pam's picture on the Fantasia website was clearly taken during the day, the bond that I supposedly share with my vampire is nonexistent. These are all inescabable proofs that what I see in front of me is real. I am a sick woman whose husband has died and who desperately needs to recover.

But there is one bit of evidence even more important than what is in front of my eyes. The truth in my heart and my heart screams out to me that this is wrong! That my love lives, my vampire is looking for me. Suddenly I know with the entirety of my being that if I am to find him, return to him, I must fight!

"NO!" I scream at him. Dermot looks at me utterly shocked. He rises from his desk and begins to come over to me.

"Susannah, you're becoming aggitated. This is your sickness talking. Try to overcome it, try to bring yourself back to reality." He tries to sound calming, reassuring but I see in his eyes that he is becoming aggitated.

"NO, let me go! I won't tell you anything. LET ME GO!" I scream. Dermot stalks towards me the threat suddenly clear. I try with all my might to summon every last bit of strength from my body. I feel something start to rise from within me, to break free. Without any further warning there is a burst of light so bright that I am momentarily blinded by it. I bring my hands up infront of my eyes trying to sheild myself from it.

When the light fades and I can see again the hospital is gone. Instead I find myself lying on the ground in what looks like a tent. I see Dermot, the real Dermot, the fairy just a few feet from me on his knees, holding his head in his hands. He rocks back and forth for a moment and then looks up at me utterly crazed.

"How? How did you break the spell?" He cries out at me. His eyes are blazing with pain and hate. I don't answer him, I don't waste a single breath on him. Instead I look quickly at the flap of the tent and realize with relief that it's night. I can feel that I'm still very injured and the pain in my body is almost overwhelming, but I ignore it and instead reach out with my mind trying to feel Eric through our bond.

I take a deep breath and reach out with everything I am. When the tendrils of my side extend out and finally touch his I begin to cry, relief and in joy threatening to overwhelm me. It is real, my life, my memories, my vampire. My heart did not lie to me!

At first I feel only anger, hatred, and blood lust from him, but when he realizes that I am here in our bond with him once more his emotions quickly change to elation, love, and something that I can only describe as bloody determination. My viking is coming for me! I sob and sob and laugh and feel myself coming undone with the strength of his emotions and mine mingled together again.

Suddenly out of nowhere I feel a hand grab me by the hair and haul me up. I am brought back into the present by the face of Dermot not inches from mine and insane with anger.

"You little bitch! How did you break my spell?" He spits at me in his rage. Suddenly he throws me down into the dirt and I feel him kicking me. "You little half breed whore, do you know what he'll do to me when he finds out that you've broken my spell, that I have nothing to show for all the time I've wasted?" I feel Dermot's foot connect with my stomach again and the pain is all consuming. The bites and cuts that Lochlan and Naeve inflcted on me scream now at this further assault. With perfect clarity I realize that I do not have time to play the damsel in distress. No matter how fast Eric is coming for me, if I don't fight back I will be dead by the time that he gets here.

I roll over slightly fighting my bodies instict to try and sheild my wounds from him. When Dermot's foot comes forward again to hurt me I grab the bottom of his pant leg and pull up with all my might causing him to loose his balance and fall on his back. I don't wait to see him hit the ground, instead I begin to crawl as fast as I can for the entrance of the tent. I don't make it more than a few steps before I feel Dermot's hand circle around my ankle and begin to pull me back.

I loose my balance and go crashing to the ground again, my injured stomach and legs screaming in pain as they're dragged along the ground. Without thinking about it I grab a clod of dirt in my hand and turn myself as much as I can. I throw the dirt in Dermot's face and blessedly get some right in his eyes. Dermot lets out an enraged scream and begins to wipe at his face. I use the moment to look desperately around the tent for anything that might help me. I see one of the spikes that holds the tent ropes to the ground just a foot away from me. I scramble as best as I can with my injuries over to it and just as Dermot gets fully to his feet and starts to stalk closer to me I reach it and haul it out of the ground.

With my last bit of strength I turn around and launch myself as fast as I can. The dirt in his eyes must still blind him because though he sees me his aim is off when he tries to swing his arm out at me and I manage to sink the spike into his chest.

He isn't a vampire of course, he doesn't just disintegrate, but the wound is enough to render him immobile and I pick myself up and flee the tent as fast as I can. I'm covered in dirt and the wounds on my stomach and legs are bleeding again, but I ignore them. Instead I concentrate on the feeling of utter happiness that has come over me. Eric is here!

When I lift the tent flap, suddenly the sounds of the outside come rushing at me. I look around and see an epic battle ensuing. Fairies and Vampires fight each other in an absolute carnage and the ground of the wooded area we're in is covered in blood, gore, and ash. I hear the screams of those that are fighting and dying and I have no idea what I should do.

But at that moment, through the mist created by the moonlight and the smoke from the campfires that still burn, I see a figure coming towards me. An avenging angel of death with long golden hair whipping behind him and a sword nearly as long as he is gripped in his hands. He swings the sword this way or that cutting down anyone foolish enough to get in his way, but he never stops moving, relentlessly pushing forward, towards me.


	8. Chapter 8

_Disclaimer: I own nothing..._

Eric's POV

When I wake this night I dress quickly and make my way to the door. Compton stops me just as I'm about to exit. Though Sookie's house is our base camp it does not have proper accomodations to house my vampires or the many others that Felipe has sent to aid us in recovering her. As it turns out,though you wouldn't know it from his crumbling farmhouse, Compton has been quite industrious in his two years here, and has created many, many bolt holes both in the house and it's foundation and the woods surrounding it. There is enough room to house him, myself, Victor, two other lueteniants that Felipe has put at my disposal, and a few others. Some of the others have chosen to sleep in the cemetary to stay close, and the rest are using the accomdations in the basement at Fangtasia. All in all it has worked out excellently, allowing us all to stay close instead of having to disperse each dawn back to our respective resting places.

"Eric, I just recieved a call from Pam," He says. "Herveaux's weres continued working on the fairies we captured throughout the day and they've given up a location." I look at Compton and I'm sure the burning eagerness in my eyes is evident. FInally, something of use. I don't bother with words only gesture to him with my head to continue. "The fairies think she's been moved to the woods just outside Baton Rouge."

"Come, we're getting Niall." I say striding past him and out the door. Compton follows behind me and as we walk he summons the other vampires, now awake and waiting, to follow us. We make our way through the cemetary and to Sookie's house. I instruct the guards there to send up the call. We will leave a skeleton force here to guard the portal and the rest will come with us. When Niall hears the commotion he comes out of the house, his ivory hilted iron sword in hand.

"The woods outside of Baton Rouge." Niall nods his head, his fighters gathering beside mine, and falling into ranks. We make our way around the back of the house and to the portal just at the edge of the clearing in Sookie's backyard. Without another word the Fairy Prince holds up his hand, and I both feel and smell the fae magic coming off of him as he brings the portal to life. Within seconds, where there was nothing before there is a large ovular gash in the space directly infront of him which emits an eerie sort of light. The first time my vampires saw this they were astonished, but now after three days of fighting together with Niall's fairies and using the portal to jump from one place to another they do not even flinch.

No doubt Breandan will have the portal nearest to him watched and so several of Niall's guards enter before us, prepared to fight the enemy guards so that the rest of us can get through. When we arrive on the other side Niall's fae are at the ready and they each lunge at one of Breandan's men. They are not as numerous as we had expected. Niall and I look at each other and nod. We've caught them off guard, they must be preparing to move again.

The rest of Niall's forces and my vampires make their way through the woods, my vampires following the delectable smell of fairy, the only detection equipment a vampire needs to find a such a large group of fae.

As we are moving out I allow myself to let the anger, the hate, and the blood lust rise and take me over. We will find her, I will have my Sookie back and Breandan and the scum that follow him will be the feast to celebrate my victory! Just as I am about to lose all semblance of higher brain function and give myself over to the animal that I must so often keep tightly leashed I feel something. Something that has been absent from me for three days now. It is as though an empty space is filling in my soul and I know it to be Sookie even before I can fully think her name. She is reaching out to me. She is badly hurt and desperately in need of me. But most of all she is close! I turn to Niall my fangs fully out.

"She is here, give me the space I need." A fleeting look of relief passes across his features as he nods his understanding to me, and then he completely drops his mask. Turning from the kindly, handsome looking old man that he shows to the world into the deadly, terrifying creature of death that is a fairy's true nature. It has no doubt been the last thing that a great many vampires have seen over the centuries of his exisitence, but when I look on it now I feel only satisfaction and the rising of my own demon to meet his.

Niall gives the order and his fairies and my vampires fan around me creating a bubble that will allow them to take down Breandan's forces as I move through the mele to my love. When we reach the edge of Breandan's encampment the fighting begins. The vampires and fairies infront of me begin to engage Breandan's men and I allow my beast to take full reign, there is little left of the man Sookie loves at this moment, but I know that he will reapear when he again beholds his beloved.

After a few endless minutes we are close enough to see what must be Breandan's command tent and I move toward it with stealth cutting down any fairy that escapes the men in front of me without so much as looking at them. As I move, swinging my sword, I feel the blood of the enemies infront of me begin to coat my face and my body, but their fairy scent barely penetrates my mind. Instead I move forward almost in a trance to the tent, drawn there by both the strengthening feelings coming through our bond and the sight of the injured, drained little girl holding tightly to its fabric to keep herself upright.

Sookie injuries are worse than I could have imagined, and it appears as though she too has had her own fight just minutes before. I see that the clothes she is wearing are barely nothing more than dirty rags at this point, and with a pang that almost causes me to loose my concentration I realize that she is bleeding profusely from savage cuts all over her stomach and the top of her legs. Instead of giving into the feelings of terror and grief at the sight of her I use them, use them to fuel my hate and my blood lust and as one last foolish fairy comes infront of me I vent it on him, cutting off first his sword arm, then slashing him almost directly through his middle, and as an extra treat severing his head.

He is the last thing between me and Sookie, and as I approach her now I feel her use the last bit of her strength to push herself forward and into my arms. I pick her up as gently as I can and hold her close to me. She is so weak, so very injured, but she looks up at me wth her last strings of conciousness and smiles.

"I knew you weren't a dream, I knew it in my heart." She whispers and then falls into the darkness of her own unconcious. I scan the battle quickly and see Niall landing the death blow that will end Breandan and this rediculous war. When Breandan falls to the ground his body already beginning to disintegrate Niall lets out a terrifiying war whoop, a light shooting out from his hand. The fighting stops almost immediately.

When Breandan's remaining warriors, and there are not many, see that they're leader is dead they drop their weapons and surrender. It is over. Niall catches my eye and we share a moment of clarity before he barks out orders to one of his fairy luteniants and the luteniant and I race back to the portal to get Sookie to safety.

We are back at Sookie's farmhouse within ten minutes and I take her straight into the house and through to her bedroom without so much as a backward glance at Niall's guards. I lay Sookie, still unconcious, gently down on top of the bed and strip her of the ragged shirt and torn shorts she is still wearing. When I get my first good look at her my stomach, which I have not felt for the last ten centuries, turns over. The damage to her body is revolting to look upon and I find myself having to keep a tight leash on my anger, so near the surface after the battle I've just fought, before I destroy the entire house in my rage.

What appeared as slashes from a distance are actually a great deal of large bite wounds, whole places where her flesh has litterally been torn away in chunks. Many of them have reopened with her struggle tonight, and I can sense that she is losing what little blood she still has. The wounds are deeply infected and if she does not recieve help soon she will surely die. I bark out at the top of my lungs for one of the guards to call for Dr. Ludwig and then I do the only thing that I can. I race into the kitchen grab a carving knife and race back into Sookie's room. Standing over her I slice my arm open from my wrist to the inside of my elbow and begin to squeeze the blood out over her wounds, the pain in my arm barely registering over the panic I feel for her. When the wound in my arm closes I open it again and put it directly to her mouth.

Just as the wound closes again Dr. Ludwig enters the room. She looks from my dirty bloodstained form to Sookie's and I see her grimace slightly. For the diminutive doctor this is a big reaction. We say nothing to each other though, instead I back away slightly and give the healer the room she needs to tend my bonded.

She orders the guards to bring her hot water and she begins to clean Sookie's wounds. My blood has closed them all and now she wipes away the remaining dirt and detris so that she can make a determination. After some while she looks up at me a hard expression on her face.

"Do you wish to turn her?" She asks. My heart literally hits the barrier of my chest when she asks this. I had hoped it would not come to this. Sookie told me she did not wish to be turned. But I will not let her die, not now, not after we have both fought so hard to get back to each other. What should I do?

"Is there no other option?" She frowns at this and lets out an exasperated sigh.

"If you don't then I need Niall here immediately." As though he is an actor hitting his mark the victorious last prince of the fae choses this exact moment to walk through Sookie's bedroom door.

"I am here healer." He says. She looks over to him and gives a slight bow.

"Unless you wish her to die or be turned I will need your help." Niall looks over at me and I see a moment where I know he is considering his chances of taking me out. Now that I have helped him win his little civil war it appears that I am no longer an ally of use and he would rather his great grandaughter dead than turned. I let my fangs snick down showing him I am prepared.

"Stop it right now. I can save her but I need you both." The doctor snaps at us and for an instant Niall actually looks shocked to have been spoken to so. But in the next moment his common sense prevails and he nods at her.

"I will do for my kin whatever needs doing. Tell me how I can be of use to her." The doctor nods and I see a brief look of relief cross her face before she becomes all business once more.

"Good," Ludwig opens the window and poors out the remaining water from the bowl and then picks up the knife I used to cut my arm open. She hands it to Niall first. "I need your blood." Niall only nods and proceeds to cut his wrist open.

"I have already given her blood." I say, the doctor smiles at me, a rarity for her, especially when aimed at a vampire.

"And she is still breathing right now because of it. But in order for her to truly recover she will need the magic within both of your bloods. She is your bonded and his kin, she needs both." When Niall has finished bleeding Dr. Ludwig takes the bowl and brings it over to me. I cut my arm open again and let it bleed over the bowl. When the wound again closes she takes the bowl to Sookie.

"Vampire hold her up." The doctor commands and I come forward lifting Sookie up as gently as possible so that the healer can bring the bowl to her mouth. She feeds Sookie half of the contents and then instructs me to let her back down. Taking a clean sponge from her bag she soaks it in the remaining blood and starts to swab it over Sookie's stomach and legs, coating each cut and bite and bruise in our combined blood. The magic of both our bloods causes the wounds to heal completely but leaves Sookie's skin riddled with deep whole like scars that will probably never fade. When she is finished she looks at us both.

"The little girl will live, that's all I can do." She says and then picks up her bag and leaves without a glance back, leaving Niall and I alone with Sookie.

"You showed remarkable restraint tonight vampire. I have never seen even a very old vampire that could keep his wits about him with a bleeding fairy so close." He had better not test my patience to greatly or he will find he has reached the end of my restraint. I still hold him entirely to blame for what has happened.

"I wish her alive, more than I wish you dead." I say never letting my eyes leave my Sookie.

"You love her." It isn't a question and so I do not bother to answer it. "I do as well." He says simply. "It is not safe for humans and fairies to co-exist, this little debacle has proved it. I will take what remains of my people and go back to Fairy. I will seal the doors behind me." I look at him then my eyes blazing with renewed anger.

"This is all you have to say? After everything you have done to harm her you will simply leave." I feel my disgust for him rising. Niall looks down at Sookie and I see something that might pass for affection cross his face.

"It is to keep her from further harm that I must do this." I snort bitterly.

"Then it is good that her saftey is no longer your concern. She is mine now, I will not allow further harm to come to her." Niall only nods his head.

"I think that would be for the best." If I did not hate him so very much at this moment I might be astonished. But still all I can think is that, now that he has won his war, with my help and at his grand daughter's expense, he clearly has no further use for either of us. Niall takes a step closer to Sookie at that moment and I feel my fangs snick down once more. I hiss at him in open threat, but he puts his hands up in a gesture of surrender.

"I only wish to give her something before I leave," he says. I think on it for a moment and then step a single step away from her allowing Niall access. If I had my way he would never touch her again, but whatever he intends to do I will allow, if only because he owes her so very much! Niall's hands start to glow and he lays them gently over Sookie, touching each scar on her abdomen and thighs. Sookie's skin seems to take the glow for just a moment and when it stops the scars,even the small circular scar from her stake wound, are gone as if they never were, and her skin is left smooth an unblemished.

When he stands away from her I sit down on the bed, ignoring the blood and dirt that still cover me and just stroke her hair. I stay like that for a long time and when I look up Niall is gone as are all the other fairies that have been in and around the house.


	9. Chapter 9

_A/N: Thank you as always to everyone who reviewed this story, put it on alert, and in their favorties, y'all are wonderful and you keep me writing! So here is the end, it's just some fluff and lemons but I thought after everything Eric and Sookie went through they deserved it!_

_Disclaimer: I don't own them, never will :( _

Sookie's POV

I don't know how long I've been out this time, but I feel a distinct fear when I swim back up to conciousness. I am terrified to open my eyes. I don't know where I will be when I open them. Am I in the mental institution? Am I in the tent with Dermot? Am I safe? Am I dead? I wonder briefly if I really want to know at all, or if I should not just lay here with my eyes closed and will myself back to sleep. Just as I feel the first tears begin to make their escape from my tightly closed eyes a large, cool hand comes up to gently sweep it away.

"Look at me Lover, you are safe now." A brief sob escapes me and I am litterally over come with relief. I open my eyes and am greeted by the sight of my very own avenging angel. I have been out long enough that he is now clean of the blood and gore that covered him the last time I saw him and instead he sits in front of me long hair pulled back in a loose ponytail, and dressed in his usual Fangtasia T-shirt and dark jeans. In short he is absolutely the most beautiful sight I have ever seen. Without a second thought I spring up and throw myself into his arms.

"Oh Eric! You're here, you came for me!" I say burrying my head into the crook of his neck and breathing in his unique and utterly amazing scent. Eric chuckles softly and wraps his arms around me squeezing me to him.

"You are my bonded, the other half of my soul, did you think I could ever abandon you?" He asks me with such tenderness in his voice that I can't do anything but hold him closer and cry harder.

"I love you," I sob into his shoulder. I feel Eric band his arms around me even tighter, kissing the top of my head with such gentleness.

"And I you, for so long now Lover." He whispers. Eric lays me back down on the bed and joins me, still dressed, under the covers. He takes me back into his arms and we just hold each other for a long, long time.

"Were are dreams real?" I ask him after a time. Eric looks down at me and nods his head. I take a deep breath and prepare to say something that just a few short days ago would have been beyond my ability.

"Then I want to leave here. I want to be with you, just like you promised me in our dream." Eric looks at me astonished, and for one brief moment I think that I have made a huge mistake, that now that the danger is passed he doesn't want me underfoot, but then I see a single red tear fall from his eye and streak down his cheek.

"Sookie," he whispers, his voice overcome with the emotions that he's feeling, that I can feel to through our bond. "Sookie, if you chose this there is no going back, I will never, I can never, let you go." I let all the implications of that simple statement wash over me. A few days ago these were things I didn't want to entertain. This thing between us, that has always drawn us together even when we pushed each other away, was something I couldn't even begin to make sense of and I didn't even want to try. But nearly dying, being tricked into believing that he was dead, that everything we have shared together was nothing more than a delusion provides me with a new found clarity.

I have let my head rule me for a long time. Let it make decsions that I thought were best even if they were not always wise, and truthfully it hasn't served me so well. My head lead me to keep going back to Bill until he'd nearly destroyed me in every way possible, to hide the truth about the depth of our relationship during his curse from Eric, to chose Quinn over him until Quinn to betrayed me to the point I could no longer forgive. And finally to refuse Eric's offer of protection, and of love, and stay here only to be taken by Lochlan and Naeve and put through the hell I lived through for days.

But last night I chose, against the voice of reason in my head, to listen to my heart, to believe when everything else told me I should not, and it did not steer me wrong. I decide to knock on the door to my heart once more and let my it tell me what it already knows.

"I don't want you to let me go, ever." I say looking deep into his eyes so he will see the truth there as he hears it from my lips and feels it through our bond. Eric takes a shuddering breath and then before I can even process his movements we are both undressed and he is crushing me to him.

I balk at first anticipating the pain in my stomach and legs that has been my constant companion, even in the depths of Dermot's spell, but it doesn't come. I tear my eyes away from my beautiful viking for one moment and look down, but I don't see anything. My stomach is smooth and unlined as though it never happened. Instead of feeling happy that I am not horribly disfigured from my ordeal though, I feel a tiny spark of fear. Did it happen at all? Was that a delusion too, another part of Dermot's spell? Is this a delusion? Am I really still in that mental hospital?

From love and desire I'm transported immediately to terrible panic. I hear more than feel that I'm hyperventallating and I don't know what to do to stop. I can't stop! Suddenly I feel waves and waves of calm washing over me. I feel Eric's strong arms holding me again and I know the calm is coming from him.

"Lover, I'm here. This is real, do not doubt it." I look at him and I see the fear for me in his eyes. "Niall and I both gave you blood and then he used his magic to erase your wounds. They were there but his magic has made them no more." I feel the calm coming from him through our bond, and that bond that I hated and railed against for so long suddenly becomes like a life line to me. Proof that this is real, that we are real. I am grateful to Niall for healing my scars but it appears that there are ones just below the surface that magic and blood cannot erase, maybe trust and love can though.

"Eric, how did Dermot know your last name?" It wasn't the most the signficant question when I realized that Dermot was going to try and kill me and that I had to fight back, and it was definitely not as important as knowing that what I remembered about the attack by Lochlan and Naeve actually happened, but now that those two things are out of the way it's absolutely burning a hole in me. Eric smiles gently, but I can see his eyebrow inching higher on his head at the same time.

"I had wondered why that was so important to you." He says

"When Dermot had me under his spell, he litterally tried to tell me that everything I remembered was false, he even tried to take our names away from us. He kept calling me Susannah and insisting that your name wan't Northman. When I asked you and you confirmed that for me it almost made me believe that what he was telling me was true. It did convince me for a little while. How did he know?" Eric strokes my cheek gently and I can tell that he is angry that he never got the chance to explain things during our dream, angry that something he said, however inadvertantly, might have caused me to give up.

"You know that there was a great war between vampires and fairies, yes?" I nod my head. "It happened when I was just about three centuries old. Appius was determined to participate and he called me back to join him in the fight. As I told you, he had been a legionaire in his human life and between the two of us we gained a reputation during the war. Up until then I had simply gone by Eric Svenson, or just Eric, but as the fairies came to know us, and to fear us, they started referring to me as 'the Northman' and it just sort of stuck. In the century that followed everyone began to refer to me that way, and honestly I enjoy the advantage it gives me over vampires who are old enough to remember how I came by that name. Despite there many differeces of opinion Niall and Breandan were allies during that war and I fought them and their forces both, so it makes sense that Breandan would remember such a detail."

"Eric I was so scared, I had no way of knowing what was real and what wasn't and I don't know what would have been worse, dying in that tent, or living in the hell Dermot created for me where you were gone. And now that it's over I'm still terrified everytime I close my eyes, even to blink, that when I open them I'll be somewhere else, that reality will have turned itself upside down again!" Again I start to panic, but Eric does not let me. He pulls me back against him, holding me ever closer so that I can feel every real inch of him pressed to me. So that I know he's real. At this moment he's my lifeline to reality and my only wish is to drown in him, to press myself so tightly against him that seperating us will be impossible. I know he can feel the desire that runs through me and into him and it's all the permission he needs. We both need this and he knows it.

Eric's arms around my tighten and he pulls me beneath him. Perhaps before he meant to be gentle to take things slow considering the ordeal I've been through, but physically it's as though my injuries never were and mentally all I want is to feel him deep in me, hard against me, proving with every push and thrust that this is no dream.

Eric takes my hair in his hands pulling it back and forcing my head up so that he can take my lips in a kiss just shy of bruising, and I meet him inch for inch throwing one arm around his back, letting my finger nails rake the skin between his shoulder blades and letting the other take a hold of his magnificent backside, feeling the muscles there flex under my hand.

I let my tongue sweep over his lips begging entrance and when he grants it to me I caress his fangs and explore his mouth as though I will die if I don't taste him. We stay just like that for long time kissing ravenously and pressing every inch of ourselves against each other and suddenly when I feel that I can't take anymore he's there pressing into me completely. I cry out into his mouth and swallow his answering grown as he begins to move inside of me. We break our kiss so that we can hold each others gaze, and when I fall over the edge I force my eyes to stay open, to stay in this moment with him and I'm rewarded moments later by the sight of him joining me just over the edge.

When it's done Eric tries to roll over to his side, but I don't let him. Instead I use all my might to pull him down on top of me, and in his post bliss state he allows me to do so. I've often heard at the bar, usually from other women's head, but sometimes outloud that women find it rude when a man just collapses on top of them after sex, right now I can't imagine anything I want more than his weight on me, his strong body sheltering and protecting mine, and so I wrap my arms and legs around him keeping him pressed to me. As if he knows, he turns his head slightly and whispers directly into my ear.

"You are safe Sookie, I will never let another being upon this earth hurt you." I sigh deeply when I hear his words and hold him just that little bit closer.

"I know you won't." Shocked by how true I know that statement to be. He's been here all the time, ready to protect me, ready to love me. I can only thank god that I've lived long enough to finally realize it, to accept it.


	10. Chapter 10

_Disclaimer: I own nothing..._

Epilouge

Eric's POV

Niall took his fairies and left as promised. Everyone including the injured Dermot and Sookie's cousins Claude and Claudine were forced to go. I cannot say that I am unhappy about this but I know that it weighs heavily on Sookie. She was close to Claudine and had begun to hope that one day she might be close to NIall as well. I know she is deeply confused by his behavior first showing up unexpectedly in her life, and then leaving just as suddenly, but she accepts it because there is no choice other than to accept.

In all the loss of life on our side was relatively small. Only a few vampires met their final deaths in battle and only a few more when Breandan's forces burned down Fangtasia. I wanted to feel angry about it, but I guessed that Fangtasia was burning about the same time Niall was slicing him into small strips so in all I feel he got the worst of it. Since Pam was not in the club at the time and was not harmed I have allowed the insurance company to pay me handsomely and have begun to look into another business, one that will not have fangbangers throwing themselves at my feet each night begging me to bite and fuck them. My wife and bonded frowns on other women doing that to me in general.

Sookie did come to live with me that very night and we have rarely been apart since. I have loved every moment and never once been unhappy about it, but in the beginning I did worry. I worried that she was using me as a shield against the world, attempting to hide behind me so that she would not have to deal with the deep psycological wounds that Breandan and Dermot inflicted on her. But in time I came to realize that she was getting better, truly coming to terms with her torture, both mental and physical, and that despite her returning health she wasn't leaving.

The time will come soon when I will bring Sookie to join me in this existence. At one time it was something she could not even fathom, would not even consider, but since the events of those nights I have seen her more and more leave her stubborness behind and embrace the truths her heart has always known. What we have is meant to be.


End file.
